In each of the first four months of 2013 the Crown Prosecution Service has announced it is to charge a company with corporate manslaughter.
Mobile Sweepers (Reading) Ltd is being charged of gross-negligence manslaughter along with its sole director, Mervyn Owens. The charge relates to the death of an employee, Malcolm Hinton on 6 March 2012, from crush injuries after working on a repair underneath a road-sweeping truck at the companies premises at Riddings Farm, near Basingstoke. He had inadvertently removed a hydraulic hose, and in doing so, caused the unsupported back of the truck to fall on him – it is good practice to never work underneath a body which has not been propped for this reason.
Colin Gibbs, senior lawyer in Special Crime for the CPS, said:
“I have carefully reviewed all the evidence gathered by Hampshire Police and the Health and Safety Executive during their investigation into the tragic death of Malcolm Hinton [and] have concluded there is sufficient evidence to charge Mobile Sweepers (Reading) Limited with corporate manslaughter under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007.
“I have also decided there is sufficient evidence to charge the company’s sole director Mervyn Owens with gross-negligence manslaughter.“In addition, I have authorised charges against both Mobile Sweepers (Reading) Limited and Mr Owens with an offence under section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974 and also with an offence under regulation 5(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.
The first hearing will take place at Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court on 21 March.
Notes on previous three corporate manslaughter cases in 2013
In November, the CPS announced a charge of corporate manslaughter against Norfolk garden nursery Belmont, run by PS and JE Ward Ltd, in relation to the death of an employee in July 2010.
In January, the company that owns Welsh colliery Gleision, where four miners died in a flooding incident in September 2011, was charged on four counts of corporate manslaughter.
In February, Prince’s Sporting Club, of Middlesex, was charged under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 following the death of an 11-year-old girl who fell from a banana-boat ride.
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